Questions tagged [supergravity]

Supergravity is a classical supersymmetric unification theory that appears in low-energy classical limits of string theory.

Supergravity is a classical supersymmetric unification theory. It appears in low-energy classical limits of .

-Theory unifies classical with Maxwell's classical electromagnetism () by showing that 5-dimensional general relativity is equivalent to 4-dimensional General relativity + 4-dimensional maxwell's classical electromagnetism. Supergravity goes a step ahead by also unifying the and . To do this, however, is also required. However, is a classical theory.

11-dimensional supergravity is the low-energy classical-limit of .

270 questions
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Is there any way to distinguish experimentally gauge mediation from gravity mediation in an unambiguous way?

There are lots of models of gravity-mediated SUSY breaking with various spectra as well as various general gauge mediation models. Are there any "smoking gun" experimental signatures that could distinguish between the two scenarios? Would this be…
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Does 4D ${\cal N} = 3$ supersymmetry exist?

Steven Weinberg's book "The Quantum Theory of Fields", volume 3, page 46 gives the following argument against ${\cal N} = 3$ supersymmetry: "For global ${\cal N} = 4$ supersymmetry there is just one supermultiplet ... This is equivalent to the…
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Why is full M-theory needed for compactification on singular 7-folds and what does that even mean?

In "M-theory on manifolds of $G_2$ holonomy: the first twenty years" by Duff, it is claimed (e.g. in section 8) that for compactification on singular 7-folds to be possible, we need to consider not the 11D supergravity (SUGRA) approximation to…
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Modern avatar of Englert's solution?

Bosonic solutions of eleven-dimensional supergravity were studied in the 1980s in the context of Kaluza-Klein supergravity. The topic received renewed attention in the mid-to-late 1990s as a result of the branes and duality paradigm and the…
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Steps for going from Polyakov action to low-energy effective action (SUGRA?) in String Theory

A lot of string-theory questions have been asked here. This one is, hopefully, different in that this inquiry is specific and the expected answer would be more mathematical than philosophical in character. To give some context, I'm familiar with…
user346
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Can a metric in General Relativity, Supergravity, String Theory, etc., be asymmetric?

Why is it that all problems I encountered until now have metrics that when represented in a matrix form turn out to be symmetric? Aren't there asymmetric matrices representing some metrics?
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Why is stringless supergravity not considered by many to be a candidate theory of quantum gravity?

This paper seems to show that $d=4, N=8$ supergravity is finite. Yet the paper only has three citations in spires, and I certainly haven't heard talk of a new candidate theory of gravity. Why isn't perturbative supergravity with some…
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How does one actually apply the M-theory/heterotic duality "fiberwise"?

It seems to be generally accepted ([1], [2]) that one can apply the duality between a $T^3$ compactification of heterotic string theory and a $\mathrm{K3}$ compactification of M-theory "fiberwise" to dualize a heterotic compactification on a…
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Problems book recommendation on supersymmetry, supergravity and superstring theory

I'm learning supersymmetry, supergravity and superstring. I want some problems books to have some idea in this area. Is there this kind of books? Or are there some papers that have many solved model?
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Obtaining supergravity from gauging global supersymmetry

On page 92, my still favorite supersymmetry book says, by making the global infinitesimal parameter of a SUSY tranformation space-time dependent (gauging) it forces one to introduce a new gauge field which turns out to have the properties of a…
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What really are exotic supersymmetric black holes?

I have just read (in the black holes chapter 14 on p244 of this book Ref.1) that in string theory, when one adds an (electric?) charge $Q$ to a static black hole, one can arrive at an exotic supersymmetric black hole. This sentence is not explained…
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In what sense is gravity "gauge theory squared"?

At this point in a talk on supergravity, Lance Dixon says "Gravity = (gauge theory)$^2$". (I found a slightly different set of his slides online; the closest is slide 19 here.) He explains that, due to the graviton spin being twice that of a gluon,…
J.G.
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Superconformal Multiplet Calculus in 6D

A convenient method for dealing with off-shell formulations of supergravity theories is provided by the superconformal multiplet calculus. This calculus was originally constructed for 4d ${\cal N}=2$ supergravity by de Wit et al. For 5d…
Satoshi Nawata
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Betti multiplets in Kaluza Klein compactifications

It is well known that if the compactification manifold of a supergravity theory has non-zero Betti numbers, this may lead to the so called Betti multiplets in the spectrum of the low dimensional theory. A famous example is compactification of IIB…
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Is there an intuitive way of thinking about the extra dimensions in M-Theory?

Why are 11 dimensions needed in M-Theory? The four I know (three spatial ones plus time) have an intuitive meaning in everyday life. How can I think of the other seven? What is their nature (spatial, temporal, ...) and is there an intuitive picture…
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